Roxane Cohen Silver
Roger Pitman
Posted on 02/06/2006 9:07:00 PM PST by presidio9
A look at the medical records of Civil War soldiers suggests post-traumatic stress disorder existed back then, too, according to a study.
The researchers found that veterans who saw more death in battle had higher rates of postwar illness. Younger soldiers, including boys as young as 9, were more likely than older ones to suffer mental and physical problems after the war.
"Increased war trauma leads to increased physical and mental illness," said study co-author Roxane Cohen Silver of the University of California at Irvine. "That message can be applied to wars around the globe."
The findings, published in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, were drawn from pension records on more than 15,000 Union Army veterans. The researchers examined the records, which included doctors' reports of illnesses, to find signs of cardiac, gastrointestinal and mental health problems.
Warring soldiers have carried home psychological scars for centuries. In American wars, the phenomenon has been called shell shock, combat fatigue and post-Vietnam syndrome. Medical authorities first accepted PTSD as a distinct psychiatric condition in 1980 at the urging of Vietnam veterans and their doctors.
In an editorial accompanying the new study, Dr. Roger Pitman of Harvard Medical School said the findings "should lay to rest the notion that there was something psychiatrically unique about the Vietnam Conflict or about what used to be called `post-Vietnam syndrome.'"
In PTSD, stress hormones like adrenaline scorch a painful event deep into long-term memory, scientists believe. People get edgy, fearful and prone to nightmares or flashbacks.
The study relied on a database managed by the University of Chicago.
Eric T. Dean, author of "Shook over Hell: Post-Traumatic Stress, Vietnam, and the Civil War," used the same records in his research. He said he is skeptical the 19th-century medical records could be made standard enough for the researchers' statistical analysis to be valid.
He also questioned relying on the diagnoses of doctors from the 1800s.
"This is a heroic effort," Dean said. "I just think it's a stretch. Beyond proving war is hell, I just question their nuanced conclusions."
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You mean war messed up people in the past too? Wow.
You are new here, so let me give you some advice:
You need to make a better effort to clarify what you are trying to say.
Do you know what PTSD is?
Some of the issues might be shell shock, but I think there must have been a lot of people who felt they had their hearts ripped out.
Roxane Cohen Silver
Roger Pitman
I've always considered it the height of arrogance or something for us to assume that our problems are the worst ever faced. My contention is that almost everything changes with the scenery...except human nature.
There was no time to dwell on loss -- you might not survive the next winter. You had to plant, and build, and harvest. Half of your children could fall ill and die by age 3.
Unlike today, there were no therapists to patronize and exploit your emotions. You prayed and went on with life, because that's what God called you to do.
Not a bad system, compared to today's useless and hollow coping mechanisms. (Oh and ummm... opium. They had opium, of course.)
Well your off to a good start newie
That's a good SPL call, stevem.
Please provide a source for the US "propaganda & posters" that provoked Germany to attack Poland and Japan to attack Pearl Harbor... you do have such facts readily available don't ya? Or, is it that you represented "we" as the Axis powers?
I never said that we provoked any attack.
I was stating the "we" used posters and propaganda to lessen the "human" element of war.
http://rutlandhs.k12.vt.us/jpeterso/Coljap.htm
Got facts? Please quote Zinn or Chomsky at will...
You have truly missed the mark. The dehumanizing was propagated by Germany & Japan's Acts of War. What did the United States & Allies do, to dehumanize an already dehumanized enemy of mankind?
Here is some:
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/powers_of_persuasion/this_is_nazi_brutality/this_is_nazi_brutality.html
Dr. Seuss made some as well
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/Frame.htm
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